For a brand that has evoked warm, homey Americana scenes for more than 100 years, a recent partnership and cause-related campaign of Kraft Foods' Maxwell House Coffee Company seems a natural.
The campaign, "Maxwell House Build A Home America," launched in 1997. The goal was to donate $2 million to Americus, Ga.-based Habitat for Humanity to build 100 homes for 100 families across the U. S. in 100 weeks and marshall support through grass roots community volunteers. Ultimately, Maxwell House hoped to reinforce the brand's integral role in the American home and family over the past century.
The campaign's dual goals - building homes and building its brand - have both been met. Forty-nine homes were built in 1997, with the remaining 51 scheduled for completion in November 1998. And the company's image as a provider of homey scenes, figurative and literal, has been spread through the extensive media coverage.
The campaign, created by Ketchum Public Relations/New York, generated more than 100 million impressions, including high-profile national coverage on The Oprah Winfrey Show, CBS This Morning and in The New York Times and Brandweek. Local media coverage, essential to such a campaign, has been equally strong.
"One of the goals of this campaign was to win hearts, so to speak, and make an emotional connection with the consumer," says Karen Strauss, senior VP and creative director, Ketchum PR/New York. "For a very mature brand [like Maxwell House], a cause-related campaign can breathe new life into the brand and give it a platform that is not just an invention of a PR firm but is absolutely consistent with the brand values, and deliver the brand essence in an emotionally riveting way."
The success of the campaign also is credited to the internal championing of the project by Noelle Nicholson, senior brand manager and project leader at Maxwell House.
Coverage Linked to Community
In order to reinforce the connection between Maxwell House and its values of home and family, Ketchum planned the launch event for July 5th to capitalize on the spirit of the July 4th weekend and will conclude during Thanksgiving of 1998.
At the launch event in Whitman, Mass., actor William Devane, the voice of Maxwell House for the past few decades, became a pivotal player. "He came to the event, helped with the build, and was interviewed extensively by the media," says Stephanie Foxman, VP, account supervisor, brand marketing at Ketchum.
Ketchum worked with Habitat for Humanity's affiliate offices in each city where they built a home, organizing the visuals for the media coverage and handling all on-site details. Executing events in 21 markets presented some challenges, as the project's budget did not allow for Ketchum staffers to attend each event. Ketchum prepared a hefty turn-key guide for each affiliate office containing PR pointers and advised them on how to handle the event.
In a campaign closely intertwined with the local communities its visits, Ketchum arranges for the participation of mayors, local community leaders, VIPs and the families. Media coverage varies from a groundbreaking, a wall framing or an 18-hour build event, where an entire home is completed and a family moves in at the end.
That intimate and personal approach and ensuing media coverage is exactly what Maxwell House intended. "It's rarely a program that's not looking to spike sales, but the number one driver of this campaign was not a sales goal," says Strauss. "It's a reaffirmation of the brand's core equities and making them relevant to consumers today. It certainly made noise in the marketplace, but it also touched people on a real grass roots level and [interacted] with them face-to-face." (Stephanie Foxman, Karen Strauss, Ketchum PR, 212/448-4200; Pat Riso, Noelle Nicholson, Maxwell House, 914/335-4602)
Good to the Last Nail
The "Maxwell House Build A Home America" campaign in conjunction with Habitat for Humanity, achieved its goals with these initiatives:
Sources: Maxwell House & Ketchum PR/New York